Skip Bayless, the co-host of Host of Fox Sports 1’s Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, appeared on Thursday’s special edition of The MMA Hour where he underlined the reasons why he thinks that Conor McGregor will defeat Floyd Mayweather on Saturday night.
The veteran anchor underlined that he has never been a fan of Mayweather’s, which factors into his choice of McGregor, highlighting the undefeated boxer’s previous domestic charges as well as citing that he “doesn’t engage” with his opponents.
Bayless claimed that Mayweather had not been in a serious battle since his rematch with Marcos Maidana and described his bout with Pacquiao as a “pillow fight”.
“I don’t know how long Floyd thinks he can get away with not fighting because he hasn’t had what I would call a serious battle,” Bayless told Ariel Helwani.
“You can just discount (Manny) Pacquiao, Pacquiao tore his rotator cuff three weeks before that fight.
“It was a pillow fight, they just sort of waltzed for twelve rounds, Pacquiao doesn’t have a mark on his face, it goes to the judges. I thought Pacquiao was the aggressor in that fight, Floyd just ran for the whole fight and threw a lot of flick punches…little mosquito punches.
“In the end, Floyd hasn’t had a real battle of a fight since the second (Marcos) Maidana fight and that’s almost three years ago.”
Bayless went on to say that it would be “shameful for the sport of boxing” if Mayweather didn’t stop McGregor and how he expects the Irishman to “unleash unholy hell” on the 40-year-old.
“Floyd stays in naturally good shape, but he is a little man and Conor’s right: he has a little head, a little torso and little legs and brittle hands.
“I give Conor more than a puncher’s chance. I think he’ll set up Floyd to come out of his comfort zone. He’s goaded him with trash talking – Floyd has to try to knock him out because if he doesn’t it would be shameful for the sport of boxing and for Floyd’s fiftieth win.
“I think he’ll get him out of his comfort zone, land one shot in the seventh or eighth round and all of a sudden he’ll unleash unholy hell on him.”
Mayweather is well known for going the distance, and Bayless believes if the contest goes to the judges, the bout is “effectively fixed”.
“It has to be by knockout,” he said.
“If this goes twelve and it goes to the judges…I’ll go this far…it’s effectively fixed with those two Las Vegas judges – one is from Reno, one is from Vegas.
“They’ve done all sorts of Floyd fights and they’re not going to let Conor win on points. And again, Conor can’t outbox him, but he can outpunch him. So, again, he has to win by knockout and he will.”
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